Attorney General Tong Sues Trump Administration Over Illegal Immigration Conditions Placed on Billions in Federal Funding

Press Releases

05/13/2025

Attorney General Tong Sues Trump Administration Over Illegal Immigration Conditions Placed on Billions in Federal Funding

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong, with a coalition of 19 other attorneys general, today filed two separate lawsuits against the Trump administration for attempting to illegally coerce their states into performing federal immigration enforcement duties by threatening to withhold billions in federal funding for emergency services and infrastructure.

Attorney General Tong and the coalition filed one lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. The coalition filed a second lawsuit against the Department of Transportation (DOT) and DOT Secretary Sean Duffy. Each agency has imposed sweeping new conditions that would require the states and state agencies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts or lose out on billions of federal dollars that states use to protect public safety and transportation infrastructure.

“The federal government needs to do its own job—lawfully—and stop this unconstitutional fixation on micromanaging sovereign state business. Immigration enforcement is a federal role. Plain and simple. You cannot coerce states into doing the federal government’s job by stealing our disaster relief and transportation funding. This is dumb and dangerous, and we’re fighting back,” said Attorney General Tong.

Congress has established dozens of federal grant programs administered by FEMA and the DOT. The money Congress appropriated to those programs funds projects that range from disaster relief and flood mitigation to railroad, bridge and airport construction.

In February, Secretary Noem directed DHS and its sub-agencies, including FEMA, to cease federal funding to jurisdictions that do not assist the federal government in the enforcement of federal immigration law. In March, DHS amended the terms and conditions it places on federal funds to require recipients to certify that they will assist in enforcing federal immigration law.

Soon after Noem’s decision, DOT Secretary Duffy issued a letter to grant recipients informing them of his intent to require all state and local governments to assist in federal immigration enforcement as a condition of obtaining DOT funds. Those funds include grants for highway construction, public transportation maintenance, and competitive funds for airport and railway improvement.

In recent weeks, state grant applicants have seen similar immigration-enforcement language added to the terms and conditions governing grants administered by the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.

These immigration conditions exceed FEMA’s legal authority. Congress appropriated the billions of federal dollars to help states prepare for, protect against, respond to and recover from catastrophic disasters. The safety and well-being of Americans could be at risk if states are forced to forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in federal emergency preparedness and response funds.

Since 2021, Connecticut has received more than $1.2 billion from FEMA to prevent, protect against and respond to flooding and other natural disasters, terrorism, mass casualty events, and other catastrophes. These conditions will also damage the carefully built trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities that is critical to promoting public safety.

Imposing an immigration-enforcement condition on all federal transportation funds, which Congress appropriated to support critical infrastructure projects, is beyond the agency’s legal authority. States rely on DOT money to fund highway development and airport safety projects, to prevent injuries and fatalities from traffic accidents, and to protect against train collisions.

Connecticut receives billions of dollars in federal transportation funding. Withholding federal funding will damage public infrastructure across the county and will undermine public trust and cooperation in criminal investigations.

Joining Attorney General Tong in filing the lawsuits are attorneys general from California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin and Vermont.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

Facebook: CT Attorney General

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

Consumer Inquiries:

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